Myanmar authorities have imposed stay-at-home-measures on the country's second largest city Friday as coronavirus cases in the coup-wracked country surge, with many health workers striking to protest against the junta.Inhabitants of Mandalay, as well as two townships in the southern Bago region woke up to new restrictions banning more than one person leaving home for non-medical reasons.There was no timeframe given for the new rules, announced by the health and sports ministry of the Sta

Myanmar activists planned more anti-coup protests on Wednesday, including a silent strike with many businesses due to close and calls for people to stay home, a day after a seven-year-old girl was killed in her home when security forces opened fire during a crackdown in Mandalay.Pro-democracy protesters also held more candle-lit vigils overnight including in a district of the commercial capital Yangon and in Thahton in Mon State.The vigils come after staff at a funeral service in Mandalay tol

Another anti-coup protester was shot dead in Myanmar on Friday as a United Nations (UN) envoy urged the Security Council to hear the nation's "desperate pleas" and take swift action to restore democracy.Despite an increasingly brutal crackdown by the military authorities that has seen more than 50 people killed, protesters took to the streets again in towns around the country to denounce the 1 February coup.In Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, hundreds of engineers

Two people were killed in Myanmar's second largest city as security forces fired live rounds on protestors, emergency workers and doctors said Saturday – the latest show of force from a junta regime that has faced two straight weeks of anti-coup demonstrations.Much of the country has been in uproar since the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February, with large street demonstrations seen in major cities and isolated villages alike.Authorities have responded with inc

Burrowing deep underground, thousands of informal miners risk their lives to find gleaming red gems as a law change spurs opportunity in Myanmar's "land of rubies".Emperors, kings and warlords have long fought over the valley of Mogok in Mandalay region, where the unique "pigeon-blood" stones lie hidden.The Mogok rubies are the most expensive in the world, with the highest-quality jewels fetching multi-million-dollar prices in an industry notoriously bereft of regulat